Katrina: One Year Later - Looking Back

[Buccaneer]

One year ago, we were talking about the inevitability of the Katrina disaster that was to come. I have kept up with news about the Gulf area as they recover, including reading a great book by historian Doug Brinkley called The Great Deluge.

What I still find fascinating, from reading the book but mostly from reading this thread

http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=42131

is the unfolding of events in real time. As in the case when we read historical journals or diaries, we can see what people thought as the events unfold but with knowledge of the outcome. That was what drew me back to that thread, confirming (as did the book) that there would always be a degree of uncertainty and range of emotions as we follow along. I think the first 15 pages of that thread illustrated that perfectly: the aniticpation (and yes, excitement), the letdown and then the realization.

I asked Coug about this and he suggested it would be better to start a new thread instead re-opening that one but do reference it. So, here's my question. Ignoring that hindsight is 20/20, tell me what you thinking before, during and after the storm.

[Buccaneer]

Because this is bound to end up no different than many other Katrina threads, let me start by adding my review of the book and what I learned....

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I finished Brinkley's The Great Deluge as I mentioned above http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006...lance&n=283155

I found it to be a really good read and a page-turner, for he is a good writer. It is mostly NO-centric, as one would expect, but he does cover the events before, during and after quite well - giving the reader a diverse range of stories, experiences and points of views.

Here is the main thing I learned:

In any crisis there are two kinds of leaders: those who will act without orders and those will act only with orders. To digress, this is one of the prevailing themes in studies of Civil War battles - to the point of being the difference between winning and losing. I was struck as to the comparison in the performance of field generals in battle and to the leaders involved in Katrina, both good and bad.

Jimga mentioned that this was a hatchet job on Nagin, esp. coming out before the election. I don't agree because his actions (or specifically, inactions) spoke volumes by themselves. When you have someone who's "style over substance" or "didn't want to get his shirt dirty", you can't spin it (as much as they feebly tried to do). His 12-hour inaction on Saturday because he was afraid of being sued (by the hotels) and then hiding in the hotel for four days (except a token appearance in the water and on radio) clearly cost lives. One of my favorite tragic stories was the all of those buses. They didn't get rolling because they "couldn't find drivers", they literally could not find the keys. One whole day was spent by Nagin and his closest advisors tracking down who has the keys because that gave him something to do without doing anything. But he wasn't the kind of leader that was waiting for orders, he just was truly afraid and didn't have any guts. Maybe he has learned his lesson and would provide more leadership the next time it happens.

Much worse than Nagin was his crony, Police Chief Compass. He became a babbling idiot, doing nothing most of the time and what little he did do, it was wrong or made things worse. The book did provide a balance between the good cops and the bad cops but one cannot forget how tragically bad some NOPD performed. Thankfully the situation was made much better when Wiley (good cop) became Chief.

Before going on to the next negative leader, I can't praise enough the job the Coast Guard, the NOLA Homeboys and esp. the W&F did in being prepared and responding quickly on their own initiatives. The bureaucrats tried to hinder them but they kept on moving and saving many lives.

I think history will be kind to Gov Blanco. It was clear that she was overwhelmed and overmatched in her role as governor but she did try to act a number of times, giving the green light to some things at the right time. Her office did spend too much time in legal and bureaucratic negotiations, esp. with the feds, as goverment bodies are apt to do.

OK, now to the fun part. I'm probably going to get flamed for saying this but I believe FEMA acted exactly as they expected to do. In my years of dealing with FEMA and in reading about how they have grown and what they have become since being put in DHS, it was my expectation that they would be the last responders and the single greatest point of bureaucratic red tape that could exist in such a situation. They exceed those expectations.

Brown was an incompetent fool but what came out later, he did (to his credit) sound some alarms but they fell on deaf ears. He was the kind of leader that could not take any initiatives and could not act on his own. In fact, he knew the bureaucratic code very well and everything had to be done according to that code, regardless how long it took. In other words, a requisition of a truckload of water had to make sure that it complied with federal regulations ranging from, my guess, union labor, minority contractors, budgetary compliance and others. It didn't matter that there were urgent needs for water, food, medicine, buses, shelter, etc., you act through the bureaucracy. You do not "shoot and ask questions later". Do you expect any non-military federal bureacracies to do any differently?

Then we have Chertoff. He was the "deaf ear" that was alluded to earlier. There is nothing at all good that could have been said about his alledged leadership and no credits be given in any form (unlike Brown). Chertoff was simply a lawyer surrounded by lawyers that could not do anything original or with a sense of urgency. The one person that could have lit a fire underneath was Bush but he waited too long to do that. Bush had been coming off an aggravating 'vacation' (with Camp Sheehan) and had his attention fully set on the upcoming Roberts hearings. You do fault him for not acting sooner because for whatever reasons, he did not act with a sense of urgency in getting the military involved sooner and in getting the DHS to move. As one Louisiana official said, he did care but not enough.

I don't know, maybe it does all come down to human nature. You really don't know how people will act or react under fire until the bullets start flying. I fully believe that it could have been a lot worse (in terms of lives lost). That does say something to those that worked their butts off in saving lives and to those that persevered under trying circumstances.

Edit: To emphasize the positive among the negatives. To this day, I truly believe those groups acting on their own initiatives saved many lives. That is what we need more of.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Ignoring that hindsight is 20/20, tell me what you thinking before, during and after the storm.
I'm sure that some of you will remember a post I made which spilled everything that was in my heart after the storm. Every time I read it, I get tears in my eyes. It's hard for me to imagine that I actually felt so bad at the time. It almost seems like I'm reading someone else's story.

As far as before the storm, I didn't even know about the storm until a couple of days before it made landfall. My sister called me to say that she and my mom were evacuating, and my response was "Evacuating from what?" As soon as I got to a computer that evening, though, my life changed. I started watching the online feeds of New Orleans news coverage, and I knew it was "the one." I was glad that my mother and sister were evacuating, and I urged them to convince other family and friends to go, too. Some did, some didn't, although to the best of my knowledge, they all survived and are doing fine now.

During the storm, I was virtually glued to my computer. I'm sure that my wife was getting a little tired of and disturbed by all the hurricane talk, but I had to know what was happening to my hometown. I couldn't get away from it. Strangely, for the first time in my life, I was extraordinarily proud of being a native New Orleanian, and after being away from the city for only a month, I had finally realized how much that place meant to me. My mind was basically full of "I can't believe this destruction is actually happening." I guess I knew it had to happen someday, but it was still hard to wrap my head around the whole thing.

Regarding the well-publicized aftermath of the storm, I can't say that I was surprised. I was more disappointed and heartbroken than anything. Once I saw a crying child in his mother's arms -- or maybe it was a bewildered 80-year-old man who had lived his entire life in the Ninth Ward; I can't really remember -- I had had enough of the news coverage. I couldn't watch anymore. I guess that's why I have no interest in all the political stuff surrounding the event.

To me, Hurricane Katrina was about the bittersweet role reversal of having my mother comfort me after the storm. Hurricane Katrina was about my mother-in-law making a phone call from Memphis to the old man who lived across the street from me and my wife. In the 6 years that my wife lived in New Orleans, my mother-in-law visited a handful of times and probably spent no more than a few minutes talking to this man. She was concerned for his safety, and we were all relieved to find out that he was OK.

Hurricane Katrina was about thousands of very good people joining each other in a solitary thought: "We're going to make it." I have family and friends who have returned to the city, and they're going to make it. My sister was determined to finish her degree at UNO, and she made it. My dad was set on starting over in Atlanta after his home and belongings were destroyed, and he's going to make it.

As for me, I just hoped that one day, the images of crime, destruction, and despair would start to fade away. I hoped to be able to point at pictures or a map of my hometown and proudly tell all these northern folks, "I'm from there. It's a great place to live." I know that the city has a long way to go, but I am indeed proud of the progress. For the past year, I've been rebuilding pieces of myself, just as New Orleans is rebuilding. Even from a thousand miles away, I still feel like I'm a part of that city.

We're going to make it.

[Buccaneer]

Beautifully written.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Clarification please:
Ignoring that hindsight is 20/20, tell me what you thinking before, during and after the storm.

Does your question refer largely to the storm (i.e. the weather & its effects) or to the larger picture?

I'd hate to answer one thing & the question have actually been about another.

[Buccaneer]

Clarification please:


Does your question refer largely to the storm (i.e. the weather & its effects) or to the larger picture?

I'd hate to answer one thing & the question have actually been about another.

Neither.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Neither.

Works for me.

Carry on.

[LloydLungs]

As far as before the storm, I didn't even know about the storm until a couple of days before it made landfall.

Join the club. It wasn't much different for those of us who were down here. I still remember just sitting back at a Zephyrs doubleheader on Thursday the 25th -- 3 1/2 days before the city was demolished -- completely blissfully unaware. BIG myth that I see repeated all the time: New Orleans had five days (some say even a week) to prepare for this thing. We didn't. We had two and a half days. Just for the record.

Strangely, for the first time in my life, I was extraordinarily proud of being a native New Orleanian, and after being away from the city for only a month, I had finally realized how much that place meant to me.

Again, join the club. I really didn't care much for this place before. I still understand that it is deeply flawed, but I get steamed now when I see unfairly harsh words aimed at New Orleans, or when people question whether we should exist at all. Really gets me in my gut. I think I understand the beauty of this city now, even while acknowledging that it's not really quite my kind of town.

I couldn't watch anymore. I guess that's why I have no interest in all the political stuff surrounding the event.

Yep. Most of my family lost everything they owned -- seeing this thing through the veil of politics has been a foreign concept for me, from day one. I don't care which side scored political points against which side. I really don't. It sucks for us either way.

Even living in the area throughout all this, I don't have anything to say that's nearly as good as what you wrote.

My experience mainly consisted of

(1) being shocked that we were about to get clobbered with hardly any advance notice...

(2) sitting in a McComb Days (Disaster) Inn without power, getting only very sketchy and often incorrect radio reports, hoping my apartment survived (it did) hoping against hope my parents' house survived (it's gone), sweating profusely for three days, and vowing never again to take for granted the ability to walk into a store and buy a cold drink (and I still don't)... Not having had access to a lot of news during the first few days, the whole "New Orleans dodged a bullet" thing never registered with me. I had assumed all along that the city would drown, had braced for it, and it happened. The fact that it shouldn't have only dawned on me after the fact.

and (3) living only partially in civilization -- and we're talking about Metairie, which only flooded for two days; places close early, places don't open at all, lines are longer, traffic is worse, things mostly suck. Virtually nobody from outside the area has a handle on exactly what's going on down here. You have people who haven't been here pronouncing that we shouldn't exist, people who haven't been here saying we'll never come back, people who haven't been here saying everything must be back to normal because the French Quarter is okay... on and on.

Frustrating. It's not much fun to live here, and as a single guy with no kids and no responsibilities I'm eventually going to do what's sensible and go, but it's going to hurt like hell when I do. This place bites, and I'm going to miss it like crazy.

By the way Bucc, I'm glad you enjoyed Brinkley's book. Page-turner is my word for it also, but I wasn't sure an out-of-towner would see it quite the same way. Look at the first sentence of the book. My dad knows Laura Maloney and I used to wake up to the stupid SPCA Japonica Street jingle on the radio nearly every morning. As a local I was almost breaking down after one sentence. My mom's friend's parents, who drowned, are mentioned by name in the book, and a guy who lived on my boyhood street a few doors down from my parents did boat rescues. His saga was the closest I'll get to hearing the specifics of what happened in my old neighborhood, and for those reasons the book really got to me on a personal level; I wasn't sure it would draw a non-New Orleanian in. But I guess it does have appeal for everyone.

That said, even though I think most of Brinkley's criticism of Nagin was fair, stylistically I have a big problem with it -- in spots, Brinkley writes childishly and it's very unbecoming a serious historian. His tone on Nagin differs from his tone in most of the book; compare with the criticism of Bush/Chertoff, much of which was fair but much more professionally written. He takes petty personal potshots at Nagin that are unnecessary, even if they are spot on. I think in a few cases his personal feelings for people are so strong they lead to bad writing and bad judgment (such as his effusive praise for the batshit insane Mama D).

[Eaglesfan27]

I still remember leaving the office, in Chalmette which is in St. Bernard, on the Friday before the storm hit. I told my staff to keep an eye on the storm. I walked out of the parking lot and there was my last patient of the day as she and her mother waited for the bus. She asked me if I was coming to her H.S. car wash on Saturday, and I told her I would try to if the storm wasn't coming our way. She laughed and said she was sure it wouldn't come this way. I still wonder if she ever evacuated. I know St. Bernard and the area she lived in were hit hard, and I've never heard from many of my patients that I worked with in that area. Like others have said, 4 days out this was a Florida storm. Really, the city had 2 1/2 to 3 days to evacuate.

My wife and I decided to make reservations on the night of the 26th. We tried calling multiple places, but the hotels were all full (at least the ones that took pets, and we weren't leaving without our pets.) We finally found a hotel with a few rooms left in Little Rock, AR, so that is where we went. I'm glad we decided to go that way rather than Houston which was a nightmare evacuation the year before for Hurricane Ivan.

We made it to Little Rock in a little over 11 hours which I thought was great. I remember watching the TV constantly during the hours leading up to landfall. I couldn't turn away, nor could my wife. However, eventually after the Levees broke she became too upset to watch it any more. I just remember being so relieved that all of our family was out of there when the damage really started, yet, I was wondering about my patients and yes my property. I felt guilty about worrying about my stuff with people dying, but I still did worry.

Now, a year later, I can't help but wonder if some of my patients were some of the ones from St. Bernard who died in the storm. It was hit hard, and many of the people didn't have the means to leave.

I've left the city a few months ago, and I feel guilty for leaving. Even though, I'm still nearby and still serving many evacuees from New Orleans who chose to stay in Baton Rouge at my new job, I feel guilty because now I live in an area where things are normal again. Like Lloydlungs, I found the city to be a frustrating place to live in even 8-10 months later. Of course, problems at my job compounded that feeling. Moreso than Metairie, many places in New Orleans were not open still. The one or two pharmacies that were open had huge lines (I waited about 45 minutes on average to pick up a Rx that my wife needed.) When I went to visit this weekend with my mom visiting, many stores near my home still aren't open. Also, we went to attempt to eat at several different restaurants in Metairie that are still closed. Traffic all around the New Orleans/Metairie/Kenner area is generally bad despite less people living there. It's sad to see the devastation that still hasn't been repaired, and I think it is going to take many years for the city to regain what it has lost.

As far as the historical recountings, I've also found Brinkley's book to be one of the better ones out there.

Oh yeah, great posts Pumpy and Lloyd.

[Poli]

I have little to add, seeing as I've never been to New Orleans or even the state.

The one thing I remember was the Navy's response, which was next to nothing until after the hurricane hit. To be honest, I remember not being overly concerned about the hurricane. Another hurricane, big deal. I probably didn't give it 10 seconds of thought. Those 10 seconds were probably thinking about what fools would try to weather the storm.

In my schoolhouse, we had one sailor who was scheduled to go on leave just a few days after it hit.

The sailor, who was from New Orleans and had the same name as a former baseball player, had requested his leave weeks in advance. I remember him running the chit through my office and getting the approval through the chain of command.

The day after the hurricane, master chief called me asking to have him brought to my office and she would meet us there. At the time, I didn't know why (which shows you how much interest my command had in the hurricane), as I hadn't put 2 and 2 together. He came down and appeared okay now that I think of it. The day after a hurricane hit his hometown and he's okay. Thinking back, that's kind of crazy.

Master chief told him she was going to have to cancel his leave and promised to reschedule his leave, with extra days included, at a later time. He appeared puzzled and asked a lot of questions. It was clear he still wanted to go. Finally, master chief told him if he needed to talk her office and my office were always open for him. He then went back to class.

Maybe 30 minutes later he was back at my office, about ready to cry. I sat him down and tried to relax him. I told him I had just found out that they were cancelling everyone's leave to that area. No one in the Navy was going on leave to that area right now. It was the first time I'd ever heard of that happening. I told him it wasn't about him, it was the Navy tried to protect him. He was probably in my office about an hour before he got himself back together.

He would be back, often.

Moderate chaos ensued as the command began asking staff if any family members were located in the area. Then we progressed to the students. It would be days before all of my students in my schoolhouse with family in the area would locate their loved ones, but to my knowledge they all did. They made their phone calls home from my office.

My initial answer was no, but I had forgotten my sister had recently transferred to Fort Polk, LA. I had completely forgotten about that. When I eventually remembered, I remember trying to call and not getting an answer. I remember being very worried at that point. I looked up where Fort Polk was in relation to the state and felt comfortable nothing had happened. I don't think we heard from my sister until the next day.

I can't remember exactly when we let that sailor go back home, but I imagine it was a few weeks later. I can still remember the smile on his face when he came back. When I talked to him he said he felt relieved.

I'll never forget the hurt that kid displayed in my office.

[Buccaneer]

By the way Bucc, I'm glad you enjoyed Brinkley's book. Page-turner is my word for it also, but I wasn't sure an out-of-towner would see it quite the same way. Look at the first sentence of the book. My dad knows Laura Maloney and I used to wake up to the stupid SPCA Japonica Street jingle on the radio nearly every morning. As a local I was almost breaking down after one sentence. My mom's friend's parents, who drowned, are mentioned by name in the book, and a guy who lived on my boyhood street a few doors down from my parents did boat rescues. His saga was the closest I'll get to hearing the specifics of what happened in my old neighborhood, and for those reasons the book really got to me on a personal level; I wasn't sure it would draw a non-New Orleanian in. But I guess it does have appeal for everyone.

Lloyd, that is amazing and I really liked what you wrote. Thanks for sharing.

I'll read the other posts later today.

[WSUCougar]

Looking back, I mainly remember the escalating sense of tragedy and futility (oh no, oh NO!), and a lot of "blame game" right out of the shoot. Much of what happened seemed surreal at the time, somewhat similar to the events of 9/11 yet spread out over a longer period of time and awareness.

But in general, I'd have to say the overriding sentiment that has struck my about Katrina is the power of nature versus the meager ability of humanity to cope. We think we're prepared (to whatever degree), and then nature comes along and stomps us like bugs. Amidst the tragic consequences it's a very loud wake-up call.